Out of Season but in Vogue - 'Maxi Dresses' Steal the Winter Show

LONDON, March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

From Mary Katrantzou's elevating of teaspoons and telephone dials to couture status and Christopher Kane opting for a purple carpet to 'walk' his lilac collection down, London Fashion Week 2012, the most glamorous of events, showed it has not lost its sense of fun. But how might some of the show stopping creations on the catwalks translate online when consumers go looking for the latest fashions, with a view to making a purchase?

Data from Hydra a leading provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools for digital marketers, reveals that in the quarter leading up to London Fashion Week (November 2011, December 2011, January 2012), UK consumers made a total of 3.7 million searches online for fashion products. According to Hydra's One Platform, which holds two years' worth of data, close to 1.4 million pertained to womenswear compared to a meagre 811,000 for menswear.

'Maxi dresses' were all the rage for the New Year!

Considering the winter season, the terms 'dresses', 'dress' and  'maxi dresses' were consistently the three most popular keywords used when consumers went online to look for womenswear between November 2011-January 2012.

Interestingly 'Maxi dresses' saw their popularity rise in the New Year with the number of searches doubling from 33,100 in November, 22,200 in December to 60,500 in January, to account for 13 per cent of womenswear-related searches, online.

Winter coats and quilted jackets came nowhere close to making a dent. Dress-related searches it seems, ruled.

Shirts proved to be the big puller of online searches for menswear

'Mens coats', 'Mens shirts', Mens Jackets' and Mens suits' were pretty much the top four key terms that dominated menswear-related searches for the same period.

In November, each was queried 18,100 times, cumulatively accounting for 24% of all searches made for the subsector.

In December, the search term 'Mens coats' was the most popular, having been queried 22,200 times.

In January, the search term 'Mens suits' was queried 18,100 times, accounting for 9% of all searches made for the subsector.

Overall however, with the exception of January, it was shirt-related queries that drew in most searchers. Cumulatively the terms "Mens shirts" and "Shirts for men" accounted for 24,700 of all menswear-related searches in both November and December and 16,500 in January.

ASOS the most visible retailer in natural search

ASOS was most visible online retailer to consumer searches for womenswear in the report. It was followed in second place by House of Fraser. Marisota was the most visible advertiser.

ASOS also led in the menswear sector, followed by Top Man whilst Premier Man overtook MandMDirect to become the most visible advertiser in December 2011 and January 2011.

It remains to be seen just how these terms will be influenced by the conclusion of London Fashion Week and evolving fashion trends. By having intelligence on the most popular search terms consumers use when they go online to search for fashion wear, and having tools to be able to keep track and even predict how these terms might alter according to trends, online retailers can optimise their sites so their goods will be visible to related searches.

Notes to Editors:

About Hydra:

Hydra is a provider of SaaS tools established in 2011. The One Platform enables enterprise marketers to strategically and proactively monitor, report and participate in the conversation that existing and potential customers are having about their brand online. Gathering the collective requests and feedback of marketing executives, digital specialists, and agency professionals, One from Hydra is focused on driving revenue and return on investment (ROI) through integrated, efficient and optimised management and implementation of Phrase Marketing campaigns across online disciplines - Natural Search, Paid Search and Social Media.

To arrange an interview or for further information please contact:

Becky Hayward
T: +44(0)20-3326-1888
E: pr@onehydra.com